Survey to Gauge Community, Higher Education Institution Perceptions

A survey of the Laramie community, including University of Wyoming, Laramie County Community College’s Albany County campus and WyoTech students that launches Monday, Feb. 12, will help measure community and campus perceptions of one another.

The Laramie Town Gown Association will conduct the baseline survey. The LTGA, created in late 2016, is a partnership between the City of Laramie, Albany County, UW, LCCC-Albany County campus, WyoTech and the Prevention Management Organization of Wyoming, according to a Laramie Police Department Press Release.

Mayor Andrea Summerville said the LTGA aims to bring all the educational institutions together with the city and the county and the PMO of Wyoming together at the same table at a regular basis and create greater cooperation. She said important areas of discussion are off-campus student life and housing, public safety, neighborhood relations and community wellness.

The data in the survey, called the Optimal College Town Assessment, will be used to help the LTGA build more productive relationships between Albany County’s higher education institutions and the community.

"The idea is to really get hopefully some good responses and good data on what the perceptions of different groups in this community have in terms of town-gown relationships," Summerville said.

Summerville said the survey will help the LTGA get a feel for campus and community perceptions of one another and will include questions related to the impact of student alcohol and drug use on town-gown relationships, and important issue in a town like Laramie that has three higher education institutions.

Vice President for Student Affairs Sean Blackburn said the LTGA is looking forward to hearing perspectives of the community and educational institutions.

Blackburn said having concrete information on community perspectives is "hugely important" and will help each of the institutions that make up the LTGA work together to achieve their individual goals.

The survey takes eight to ten minutes to complete, and is open from Monday, Feb. 12 to Friday, March 2, 2018.

UW faculty, staff and students can take the survey here, WyoTech can take it here, LCCC here, and the community can take the survey here.